This Isn’t Progress—It’s a Heist

This week in Washington, President and convicted felon Donald Trump stood shoulder-to-shoulder with tech titans Sam Altman, Larry Ellison, and Masayoshi Son to announce Stargate, a $500 billion AI infrastructure project dreamed up to reshape America's technological landscape.

Within hours, the facade began to crack. Elon Musk, America's highest-profile Nazi and Trump's newly minted technology advisor and "First Buddy," took to X to denounce the project, claiming SoftBank lacks the capital to fulfill its commitments. "They don't actually have the money," Musk declared, escalating hours later: "Sam is a swindler."

It's an episode of Gossip Girl, played out by emotionally under-developed men with too much money and not enough dignity. But for all Musk's self-serving complaints, there's enough to critique here about the crossing of private capital, sovereign wealth, and national interest in critical infrastructure projects.

Lost in the spectacle of billionaires catfighting on decaying social media platforms is something mildly more consequential: the firesale of America - and the world's - future. While we obsess over Musk's bloviations and Altman's careful rebuttals, the actual mechanisms of AI power are being divided up among a handful of private entities, operated by oligarchs and funded by overseas interests, with the blessing of an Autocrat.

The race to build AI isn't just about algorithms and talent – it's about cold, hard steel and concrete. Data centers, the modern equivalent of railroad yards and oil refineries, represent the physical embodiment of AI power. And just as the railroad barons of the 1800s shaped America through their control of transportation arteries, today's tech titans are carving up the digital frontier through massive infrastructure projects.

The numbers are staggering. Microsoft alone pledged $80 billion for AI infrastructure this year. OpenAI's single data center under construction in Abilene, Texas, will consume more electricity than some small cities. Musk's xAI facility in Memphis costs $12 billion—more than the entire GDP of some nations.

When Cornelius Vanderbilt built his railroad empire, he relied primarily on American capital. Today's AI infrastructure boom draws heavily from foreign sovereign wealth funds, particularly from the Middle East. MGX, a key Stargate investor, represents a complex web of Middle Eastern state interests. SoftBank, led by Masayoshi Son, is a conduit for global capital flows into American tech infrastructure.

What would J.P. Morgan think of Sam Altman? Both men built financial empires by convincing others to bet big on transformative technology. Morgan's trusts consolidated America's industrial might; Altman's OpenAI aims to consolidate artificial intelligence under a single corporate umbrella. But while Morgan answered primarily to American investors and regulators, Altman plays a global game, balancing the interests of foreign investors, domestic regulators, and an increasingly anxious public.

When John D. Rockefeller built Standard Oil's pipeline network, he created a private empire that effectively controlled America's energy arteries. Today's AI infrastructure projects could create similar monopolies over the digital highways that power artificial intelligence. Who controls these networks controls the future of AI development – and, by extension, significant portions of the American economy.

In 1911, the Supreme Court broke up Standard Oil, declaring it an illegal monopoly. But how do you break up AI infrastructure when it's funded by a convoluted spiderweb of international investors? What happens when national security interests collide with the global nature of AI development?

In Washington, Trump's embrace of Stargate while at the same time empowering (or aquiescing to) Musk through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) commission forms a fraught dynamic. The president effectively backs competing visions of America's AI future – one built on international cooperation and massive infrastructure projects, the other focused on domestic control and government reform.

America has been here before. The same nation that survived the consolidation of railroads, oil, and steel will likely weather the consolidation of AI infrastructure. But the rules of the game have changed. The speed of technological development, the global nature of capital flows, and the importance of AI make this infrastructure race uniquely challenging to regulate and control.

Back to Stargate and the public spat (hissy fit, perhaps) between Musk and Altman. Beyond the personal drama, there is a fundamental question about the future of innovation: Can we build critical infrastructure at the speed of technological progress while maintaining some semblance of democratic control? Or are we destined to create a new class of digital feudal lords, their power built not on land and titles but on data centers and computational resources?

The railroad barons of the 19th century left America with a transportation network that still serves as the backbone of its economy. Today's AI infrastructure builders may leave an equally lasting legacy – for better or worse.

When Standard Oil's monopoly threatened the public interest, the government had clear jurisdiction and authority to act. But in an age where critical infrastructure is funded by global capital while being controlled by multinational corporations who damn-near own the kakistocratic Government itself, the tools of democratic oversight become harder to wield effectively.

Stargate isn't a battle between billionaires or a test of financial commitments. It's a preview of how power will flow in the AI age, through layers of technology, capital, and influence that would baffle the monopolists of the past. As Musk and Altman trade barbs on social media, they're actually fighting over who gets to be the new robber barons – and we're left wondering whether anyone has the will or the means to stop them. This isn't progress. It's a heist.